Improvement in processes of dressing skins



' To all whom it may concern:

UNITED STATES PATENT QFFIOE RICHARD HART, or GLOVERSVILLE, new YORK','ASSIGNOR or one HALF HIS RIGHT'TO JAMES GILLESPIE, OF' SAME. PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT m PROCESSES OF DRESSlNG SKINS.

Specification forming pm of Letters Patent No. 169,102, dated October 26, 1875 application filed July 24, mars.

Be it known that 1,,RICHARD HART, of Gloversville, Fulton county, and State of New York, have invented an Improved Process of Dressing Skins, of which the following is as )ecifi-cation: I

My invention relates to dressing skins, and especially what are known as sheep-skin fleshers; and consists in immersing: the skins, first, in a fluid mixture of alum, flour or oatmeal, orboth, and oil and water, in the proportions and prepared'as hereinafter particularly named and described, and, after a suitable period, in' a fluid mixture of urine, soap, soda, salt, whiting, flour or oatmeal, or both, and water, in the proportions and prepared as hereinafter stated, the skins being manipulated, meanwhile, as... hereinafter .set forth, whereby the skins, 'when thus dressed, are made strongerand more pliable, and have more elasticity or spread, and are given a higher. susceptibility of finish, and may be faced or finished on either or both sides.

In carrying out my process I first immerse and halt hour in a fluid mixture, which I prepare as follows: I dissolve one pound of alum in about one anda half gallon of water, which I- 'find is most readily done by boiling. I then mix, in a separate vessel, about one-halt pound each of flour and oatmeal, or one pound.

ofeither alone, with one gill of oilan'd one and a halt gallon of water. and mix this composition with the alum-water in a suitable receptacle. At the expiration .of the designated time I'take the skins out of this mixture and stretch them, and remove the groundwork.

and knife-marks from the grain side. I then immerse them for about the same length of time, and with the same manipulations as before, in a fluid mixture, which I prepare as follows: One gill of urine, one-half bar of bar-.

soap, one-halfounce of soda, one-half pound of salt, and about two ounces of whiting or 'ocher, all boiled in one and a half gallon of water until they are thoroughly dissolved, to which'are added one-halt pound of flour and one-half pound of oatmeal, or one pound of either aione, mixed in one and a halt gallon of cold water. The skins are then dried,

pound and stir the skins for,ahout-onestretched. and staked out, and can now be faced or finished upon either side in the usual manner- Instead of urine in the mixture last described, ammonia may be used, as I find it produces the same effect; or the proportion of soda may be suitably increased, and nei- 'ther urinenor ammonia be employed, and still the desired result obtained. 4

In both of the mixtures I prefer to employ the ingredients of both the flour and oatmeal in the proportions named; but either may be employed alone in double proportion, as 1 have specified, and the efl'ect not be perceptibly changed. p

1 do not wish to confine myself to the exact quantities or proportions of any of the ingredients of eitlrer'ot' the mixtures, as herein named, as, without departing from the spirit of my invention, they may be'altered to suit the conditions and quality of the skins to be dressed.

\ The quantity of. the mixtures have herein specified is sufficient to treat about two dozen sheep-skin fleshers of the ordinary size at one time. r Skins dressed by the usual method can be finished or faced on the flesh side only, and

always have a rough and hard surfaceou the grain or unfinished side, besidesbeing rough and stifl'iin texture. I

Skins dressed by my process, by treatment to both mixtures, as herein set forth,may be finished on either or both sides, and are made soft, pliable, and with elasticity or spread,

and stronger in texture, without becoming:

rough. v r

' ,Skins which are treated to the-first mixture, only, as herein described, may be at once dried, staked, aml stretched, and finishedoneither or both sides, in the usual manner, without subjecting them to the second mixture,- and will be then better in quality, and

have a susceptibility of better tinish, .thauskins dressed in the ordinary way; but 1 pre fer to employ the entire process herein. doscribed in dressing skins, as they are thus given a superior quality and a capacity for higher finish than when the first part of theprocess only is used, and, when tinished, bear a eloseresemblanoeflotextnre andquality, to named, inabout' the proportions stated, substautially i i the manner and in .the order Q RICHARD HART. j

deer-skin or 'castor.

What-Ielaim as my invention, and desire specified.

to secure byiLettersPatemgflis- The improved process for dressing skins, Witnesses:

consisting in the application to the skins of JAMES M; DUDLEY,

, the two solutions composed of the ingredients PHILIP KEOK. 

